Community flocks to Cove Park's open day

The unveiling of the £1.2 million Jacobs Building at the hillside centre on the Rosneath peninsula on Saturday coincided with the launch of Hands On Cove Park – a new initiative aiming to build new links between the centre and the local community.

Guided tours around the Cove Park site gave members of the public – many of them visiting for the first time – a chance to see the new facility and to speak to some of the artists who have been making the most of a Cove Park residency this summer to create new works.

Cove Park director Julian Forrester told the Advertiser: “If you'd been here before, you'd have seen a building which was nice in its day but was falling to bits.

“It couldn't fulfil all our obligations and all the potential of the site. This is the first time we're really going to explore what we can and can't do with Cove Park.

“Five years ago we got the idea that we needed a new building, and it's taken that long to make it a reality.”

Funding for the new Jacobs Building came from Creative Scotland, which provided half of the £1.2 million cost, and numerous trust funds based in Scotland and beyond, chiefly the Robertson Trust and the Monument Trust.

The new centre, designed by architects Cameron Webster, and named after Cove Park’s founders, Peter and Eileen Jacobs, offersa fit for purpose resource for public and residents alike.

In addition to the centre, the project included the build of accommodation for two more artists (two sleeping units and two studios).

The Artists Centre has made it possible to develop the outstanding Community Programme, ‘Hands-On’ which is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Robertson Trust, and brings Cove Park artists past and present together with people of all ages from across Argyll and Bute for workshops, events and readings.

Catrin Kemp, Cove Park's assistant director, said: “This building offers us the chance to run our residency programme from May to September, and from October to April to work with different organisations who need time and space to make new work.

“The previous building was essentially one big space which could only accommodate one thing, but having two additional rooms means that for the first time we can run a community programme at the same time as running our international arts residences.”

One of the resident artists present at Saturday's open day was Jessica Fox, an American writer who now lives in Wigtown – Scotland's 'book town' – in Dumfries and Galloway.

“Cove Park has probably been the most amazing experience I've had in my adult life on connection with my writing,” Jessica said, “and you're really lucky to have it on your doorstep.

“I've been to other residences – I won't name which ones, because they're not as good as Cove Park! - but here you feel supported and yet you have full autonomy.

“If I'm alone and working in isolation I tend to avoid working. Here I've been really inspired by other people and their work ethic.”

The first events in Hands On Cove Park, a two-year community education programme funded chiefly by the Hamlyn Foundation, include a dance workshop as part of Luminate, a Scotland-wide festival aimed at those aged over 50, a 'Create Your Portfolio' course aimed at senior secondary school pupils hoping to apply to art college, and a new Saturday art club for young people, running as part of a network of National Art and Design Saturday Clubs.

Helen Voce, the Hands On Cove Park programme producer, said: “For 16 years Cove Park has had quite a closed environment – the public know it's here, and they may have had a relationship with it in the past, but some haven't been here for almost 20 years.

“All of the Hands On Cove Park events are about working with previous and current residents, and placing participants alongside professional practitioners.

“Hands On Cove Park is about giving people living on the peninsula, in Argyll and Bute and beyond the opportunity to make use of something right on their doorstep.”